|
@@ -0,0 +1,266 @@
|
|
|
+## Name
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+The Shell Command Language
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+## Introduction
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+The shell operates according to the following general steps:
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+* Some string is read from a source, be it a file, the standard input, or a command string (see [`Shell`(1)](../man1/Shell.md))
|
|
|
+* The shell parses the input to an abstract syntax tree
|
|
|
+* The shell performs various expansions and/or resolutions on the nodes
|
|
|
+* The shell performs various type checks and syntactic checks
|
|
|
+* The shell interprets the AST, evaluating commands as needed
|
|
|
+* For each given command, the shell flattens all the string/list arguments
|
|
|
+* For each given command, the shell records the applicable redirections
|
|
|
+* Should a command be executed, the shell applies the redirections, and executes the command with the flattened argument list
|
|
|
+* Should a command need waiting, the shell shall wait for the command to finish, and continue execution
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+Any text below is superceded by the formal grammar defined in the _formal grammar_ section.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+## General Token Recognition
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+This section describes the general tokens the language accepts, it should be noted that due to nature of the language, some tokens are valid only in a specific context.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Bareword
|
|
|
+String of characters that are not _Special_ or _Syntactic Elements_
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Glob
|
|
|
+String of characters containing at least one of `*?` in _bareword_ position
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Single Quoted String
|
|
|
+Any sequence of characters between two single quotes (`'`)
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Double Quoted String
|
|
|
+Any sequence of _Double Quoted String Part_ tokens:
|
|
|
+* Barewords
|
|
|
+* Single Quotes
|
|
|
+* Variable References
|
|
|
+* Evaluate expressions
|
|
|
+* Escaped sequences
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Variable Reference
|
|
|
+Any sequence of _Identifier_ characters, or a _Special Variable_ follwing a `$`
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Evaluate expression
|
|
|
+Any expression following a `$` that is not a variable reference:
|
|
|
+* Inline execution: A _syntactic list_ following a `$`:
|
|
|
+* Dynamic evaluation: Any other expression following a `$`
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Lists
|
|
|
+Any two expressions joined by the Join operator (` ` [whitespace]), or a _variable reference_ referring to a list value
|
|
|
+* Syntactic Lists: Any _list_ enclosed in parentheses (`(` and `)`)
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Comments
|
|
|
+Any text following a `#` in _bareword_ position, up to but not including a newline
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Keywords
|
|
|
+The following tokens:
|
|
|
+* `for` in command name position
|
|
|
+* `in` as a syntactic element of a `for` expression
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Special characters
|
|
|
+Any of the following:
|
|
|
+* `;` in bareword position
|
|
|
+* `\\n` (a newline) in _bareword_ position
|
|
|
+* Any of `(){}`
|
|
|
+* Any of `*?` not in _glob_ position
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Tilde
|
|
|
+Any initial path segment starting with the character `~` in _bareword_ position, Optionally followed by a _bareword_ for the username
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+## Redirections
|
|
|
+The shell can create various redirections to file descriptors of a command before executing it, the general syntax for redirections is an optional file descriptor, followed by a redirection operator, followed by a destination.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+There are four redirection operators corresponding to various file descriptor open modes: `Read`, `Write`, `WriteAppend` and `ReadWrite`, respectively `<`, `>`, `>>` and `<>`.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+A special syntactic element `&fd` can reference a file descriptor as a destination.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+Redirections take two main forms, Read/Write redirections, and fd closure redirections.
|
|
|
+##### Read/Write
|
|
|
+* Allowed operators: all
|
|
|
+* Allowed destinations: file paths (any shell _expression_) and _file descriptor references_
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### Close
|
|
|
+* Allowed operators: `Write` (`>`)
|
|
|
+* Allowed destinations: the special "close" reference `&-`
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+#### Examples
|
|
|
+```sh
|
|
|
+# Redirect the standard error to a file, and close the standard input
|
|
|
+$ 2> foo 1>&-
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+# Redirect a file as read-write into the standard input
|
|
|
+$ 1<>foo
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+# Redirect the standard output to /dev/null
|
|
|
+$ >/dev/null
|
|
|
+```
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+## Expansions
|
|
|
+The shell performs various expansions, in different stages.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+* Glob Expansion: Globs shall be expanded to a list.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+* Variable Expansion: Variables shall be expanded preserving their types.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+* Juxtaposition Expansion: Juxtapositions shall be expanded as list products.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+* Other expansions: Tildes, Evaluate expressions, etc. shall be expanded as needed.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+### Juxtapositions
|
|
|
+Any two expressions joined without any operator are considered to be in a Juxtaposition, with the resulting value being the list product of two expressions.
|
|
|
+For instance, `(1 2)(3 4)` shall be evaluated to `(13 14 23 24)` by calculating the list product of the two expressions `(1 2)` and `(3 4)`.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+### Tildes
|
|
|
+Any bareword starting with a tilde (`~`) and spanning up to the first path separator (`/`) - or EOL - is considered to be a tilde expansion with the text between the tilde and the separator being the _username_, which shall be expanded to a single string containing the home directory of the given _username_ (or the current user if no username is provided).
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+### Evaluate
|
|
|
+Evaluate expressions take the general form of a dollar sign (`$`) followed by some _expression_, which is evaluated by the rules below.
|
|
|
+- Should the _expression_ be a string, it shall be evaluated as a dynamic variable lookup by first evaluating the string, and then looking up the given variable.
|
|
|
+- Should the _expression_ be a list or a command, it shall be converted to a command, whose output (from the standard output) shall be captured, and split to a list with the shell local variable `IFS` (or the default splitter `\n` (newline, 0x0a)). It should be noted that the shell option `inline_exec_keep_empty_segments` will determine whether empty segments in the split list shall be preserved when this expression is evaluated, this behaviour is disabled by default.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+## Commands
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+A `Command` is a single simple command, containing arguments and redirections for a single program. The shell can evaluate a sequence of commands, a conditional relation between commands, or various semantic elements composed of commands and intrinsics.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+Commands can be either calls to Shell builtins, or external programs.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+## Shell Semantic Elements
|
|
|
+The commands can be composed into semantic elements, producing composite commands:
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+### Sequences
|
|
|
+A sequence of commands, executed serially independent of each other: `Commanad ; Command ; Command ...`
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+It should be noted that a newline (`\\n`) can be substituted for the semicolon (`;`).
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+#### Example
|
|
|
+```sh
|
|
|
+# Do one thing, then do another
|
|
|
+echo foo; echo bar
|
|
|
+```
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+### Logical Relations
|
|
|
+A sequence of commands whose execution depends somehow on the result of another
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### `Command && Command && Command ...` (AND)
|
|
|
+Short-circuiting command evaluations, will cancel the entire chain should any command fails (have a non-zero exit code)
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### `Command || Command || Command ...` (OR)
|
|
|
+Short-circuiting command evaluation, will continue down the chain if any command fails.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+It should be noted that `And` chains bind more tightly than `Or` chains, so an expression of the form `C1 && C2 || C3` is understood as "evaluate `C1`, if successful, evaluate `C2`, if not successful, evaluate `C3`".
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+#### Examples
|
|
|
+```sh
|
|
|
+# Create file if not found
|
|
|
+test -f foo.txt || touch foo.txt
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+# Announce execution status of a command
|
|
|
+rm test && echo "deleted!" || echo "failed with $?"
|
|
|
+```
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+#### Loops
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+##### For Loops
|
|
|
+For Loops evaluate a sequence of commands once per element in a given list.
|
|
|
+The shell has two forms of _for loops_, one with an explicitly named iteration variable, and one with an implicitly named one.
|
|
|
+The general syntax follows the form `for name in expr { sequence }`, and allows omitting the `name in` part to implicitly name the variable `it`.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+A for-loop evaluates the _sequence_ once per every element in the _expr_, seetting the local variable _name_ to the element being processed.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+The Shell shall cancel the for loop if two consecutive commands are interrupted via any of SIGINT (\^C), SIGQUIT (\^\\) or SIGKILL.
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+#### Examples
|
|
|
+```sh
|
|
|
+# Iterate over every non-hidden file in the current directory, and prepend '1-' to its name.
|
|
|
+$ for * { mv $it 1-$it }
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+# Iterate over a sequence and write each element to a file
|
|
|
+$ for i in $(seq 1 100) { echo $i >> foo }
|
|
|
+```
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+## Formal Grammar
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+### Shell Grammar
|
|
|
+```
|
|
|
+toplevel :: sequence?
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+sequence :: variable_decls? or_logical_sequence terminator sequence
|
|
|
+ | variable_decls? or_logical_sequence '&' sequence
|
|
|
+ | variable_decls? control_structure terminator sequence
|
|
|
+ | variable_decls? or_logical_sequence
|
|
|
+ | variable_decls? terminator sequence
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+or_logical_sequence :: and_logical_sequence '|' '|' and_logical_sequence
|
|
|
+ | and_logical_sequence
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+and_logical_sequence :: pipe_sequence '&' '&' and_logical_sequence
|
|
|
+ | pipe_sequence
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+terminator :: ';'
|
|
|
+ | '\n'
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+variable_decls :: identifier '=' expression (' '+ variable_decls)? ' '*
|
|
|
+ | identifier '=' '(' pipe_sequence ')' (' '+ variable_decls)? ' '*
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+pipe_sequence :: command '|' pipe_sequence
|
|
|
+ | command
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+control_structure :: for_loop
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+for_loop :: 'for' ws+ (identifier ' '+ 'in' ws*)? expression ws+ '{' toplevel '}'
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+command :: redirection command
|
|
|
+ | list_expression command?
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+redirection :: number? '>'{1,2} ' '* string_composite
|
|
|
+ | number? '<' ' '* string_composite
|
|
|
+ | number? '>' '&' number
|
|
|
+ | number? '>' '&' '-'
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+list_expression :: ' '* expression (' '+ list_expression)?
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+expression :: evaluate expression?
|
|
|
+ | string_composite expression?
|
|
|
+ | comment expession?
|
|
|
+ | '(' list_expression ')' expression?
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+evaluate :: '$' '(' pipe_sequence ')'
|
|
|
+ | '$' expression {eval / dynamic resolve}
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+string_composite :: string string_composite?
|
|
|
+ | variable string_composite?
|
|
|
+ | bareword string_composite?
|
|
|
+ | glob string_composite?
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+string :: '"' dquoted_string_inner '"'
|
|
|
+ | "'" [^']* "'"
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+dquoted_string_inner :: '\' . dquoted_string_inner? {concat}
|
|
|
+ | variable dquoted_string_inner? {compose}
|
|
|
+ | . dquoted_string_inner?
|
|
|
+ | '\' 'x' digit digit dquoted_string_inner?
|
|
|
+ | '\' [abefrn] dquoted_string_inner?
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+variable :: '$' identifier
|
|
|
+ | '$' '$'
|
|
|
+ | '$' '?'
|
|
|
+ | '$' '*'
|
|
|
+ | '$' '#'
|
|
|
+ | ...
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+comment :: '#' [^\n]*
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+bareword :: [^"'*$&#|()[\]{} ?;<>] bareword?
|
|
|
+ | '\' [^"'*$&#|()[\]{} ?;<>] bareword?
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+bareword_with_tilde_expansion :: '~' bareword?
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+glob :: [*?] bareword?
|
|
|
+ | bareword [*?]
|
|
|
+
|
|
|
+digit :: <native hex digit>
|
|
|
+number :: <number in base 10>
|
|
|
+identifier :: <string of word characters>
|
|
|
+```
|